To Be Strong
by Isiri
Summary: “Sakura.” Short, formal, cold. “Sasuke… kun.” Hesitant, disbelieving, wistful. Maybe things hadn’t changed that much after all. “How was your teammate, Sasuke kun?” “Fine.. unfortunately. I helped her with that.” “Well done Sasuke kun.” “Hai, Orochimaru.”


**Disclaimer: I own nothing; Naruto purely belongs to Kishimoto-sensie.**

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

'_Flash Backs'_

A/N: Okay, this takes place sometime during the three year period Naruto leaves to train with Jiraiya. This is a possibility that was stuck in my head before I got around to reading chapter246 in which Naruto comes back. Please enjoy and review! (Because this'll probably be the last thing I write for another loooooong time to come)

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**To Be Strong**

**By: Isiri**

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It was gone. Nothing but a mirage of whispering smoke crying to the sky while red flames lapped up the crumbling buildings within the demolished gates.

Something about the sight captivated and ensnared you like the sight of your very first sunset, the beauty of it forever sketched in you memory.

Like the sight of Konoha village, destroyed and burned nearly beyond recognition, thousands upon thousands of bodies littering the ground and buildings like flies, would forever scar her frail mind.

Of everything to happen, that she was last alive, as far as she knew at least, made her laugh at the irony; a hollow, bitter sound.

A sound so foreign to her ears that it shocked her to hear it coming from her own lips because not once had anything more then giggles and sobs come from her.

Her-- the happy, go-lucky girl that always smiled--

Her-- the undeserving crush of Konoha's #1 loudest ninja--

Her-- the weak, pathetic female of the famous Copy-Nin Kakashi's Team Seven--

'_His body lay still on the blood-covered ground, right leg broken and twisted at what must have been an incredibly painful angle, a still-bleeding hole through his chest and Sharingan eye missing, leaving a hollow eye socket next to a black orb that stared at the sky in shock...'_

Her breath caught in her throat and she forgot how to breathe as her former sensei's mangled corpse invaded her mind, sending her battered body to its knees.

No matter how much she trained, no matter how strong she became, in the end she was still weak. The tears pouring down her face like two unified streams were the only evidence needed to prove that.

The attack had no warning, starting late in the night. It was the eventual screams that woke her up and she was outside in the streets still wearing her sleep wear, a pair of shorts and a shirt, a kunai she kept underneath her pillow as the only weapon in her arsenal.

One look at her first kill and she froze.

She knew this day would come, but so soon?

Why, why did it have to be now?

Seconds later the alarms were blaring and Leaf shinobi began their counterattack. But it was too late; Sound was attacking and the surprise ambush was all it took to shake the village enough for the enemy's wanted outcome: victory.

Along with the slaughter that ensued, that was exactly what the Sound-nins got, Victory, with a capital fucking 'V'.

How many hours had it been? She didn't know. How many people had died? She could only guess. However, one thing was sure; her home was gone, her friends were gone--

'_She rounded the corner just in time to see the attack headed straight for the blonde's back. "Ino! Behind you, WATCH OUT!"_

_Yamanaka Ino gasped and turned around... before flying to the ground on her back, numerous kunai and shuriken embedded into her chest, arms and legs._

_"Ino!" Nara Shikamaru was beside her in an instant, his opponent laying lifelessly on the ground next to Akimichi Choji's discarded adversary, the large boy joining his teammates._

_Neither they, nor she, noticed them, too scared for their fallen comrade, before it was too late. Not even a step towards her injured friend and the explosion tags attached to a kunai on the ground lit and the blast sent her flying back into a building's wall, a sickening "Crack" the only thing she heard before the noise made her deaf._

_It didn't take her more than a minute to know they were dead and while she pulled herself up, the presence of a dislocated shoulder painfully brought to her attention, she chocked on a sob and ran from the area, never once looking back.'_

and she was kneeling alone atop the Hokage monument, staring at the pathetic and barely standing village below with overflowing sadness in her eyes and a wrenching ache in her heart that she knew she would never be able to heal.

The snap of a twig had her back on her feet and the same kunai she had been fighting with since she woke was in front of her chest in a defensive position.

Emerald orbs met deadly red--

and she froze.

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"Sakura." Short, formal, _cold_. It was as if he had never left, it was as if he was still the same person as before.

But she knew better.

"Sasuke… kun." Hesitant, disbelieving, _wistful_. Maybe the two of them hadn't changed at all.

She half-expected his name to sound foreign on her lips, having not spoken it in over a year, the word taboo for both Naruto and herself. But it still carried the same tone she had used when she was twelve.

If she was in her right mind, she probably would have been disgusted with herself. Finally getting over him enough to be able to come face to face with him and fight him had been her goal. She thought she had accomplished that.

Looked like she had been wrong, because as she stood in front of him, strong and still on the outside, her mind had frozen and the twelve-year-old girl she had once been was shaking in fear and crying at the sight of the one person she had ever loved.

It was enough to make her snap! Her village, the only place she had ever called her home—

'_The blast was so strong it even shook the Hokage Monument's mountainside._

_She lifted her fallen body onto unsteady legs and forced herself to turn away from the mountain and face the battlegrounds that had once been the powerful Hidden Village of the Leaf to find the source of the explosion._

_Her eyes met the demolished west side of the village and she finally released a long-past-due anguished scream that echoed her pain and sorrow more than words ever could, through out the village.'_

— was desecrated, beyond repair this time, any friend she had ever had was probably lying somewhere, lifeless and still with no way to bring them back, and the blood--

The blood in the ground--

The blood on her hands--

The **blood** on his **clothes!**--

"You did this!" she screamed accusingly. "You killed everyone, you slaughtered them! My family, my friends..." She knew he was a part of it, that he had helped Orochimaru and Sound in the attack, just like she knew her next words would likely land her in an early grave, but she was far from caring.

"You're just like him! Can you see that, or has your unaccomplished obsession blinded you from it? Uchiha Sasuke, you are a monster, a murderer, _exactly like your brother!_"

Her entire body was trembling, caught between sobbing and screaming in anger, and yet her eyes retained their determined spark as she never once broke eye contact with the Uchiha.

If she was going to die from her last comment, the least she could do was seem brave.

After what seemed like an eternity to Sakura, though was really only a minute, the pinwheels of his Sharingan eyes started spinning and he smirked, sending unwanted shivers down her spine.

The grip on her kunai tightened so hard her knuckles began to turn white and her feet fell into a fighting stance.

A single eyebrow rose in a mocking manner. "A kunai, Sakura? Are you planning on fighting me with a single kunai?"

Her head bowed. '_A Kunai, Sakura? Are planning on fighting me with a single kunai?_' His question repeated over and over in her head and for the briefest of seconds she had actually answered "no" before the once-thought-dead Inner Sakura slapped her mentally and told her to show him that she had changed and that she was stronger then that girl he remembered her to be.

Her entire body was shaking and she could feel the smugness flowing off of him. Did he think this was funny? Did it amuse him, watching the village he had grown up in be destroyed, the people he had once considered "friends" and "comrades" killed without mercy?

"Do you think I'm shaking . . . because I'm scared . . . Sasuke-kun?" Her lowered head snapped up and she grinned at him with everything she had. "Is that why you're smiling? If so you're wrong because I'm not shaking 'cause I'm scared, I'm shaking because I'm _excited_!"

She had launched herself at him with speed she never had when he was still her teammate and it surprised him. It surprised him just long enough for her to land one chakra-empowered blow straight into his chest and send him flying back ten feet and crashing into hard rock, pieces of it flying up and around him into the air.

She breathed heavy for a few seconds before it evened out and she retracted her still outstretched arm. "Down with one punch?" She was already racing to the place where he'd fallen, jumping in the air above his struggling form as he tried to get up. "That is so PATHETIC!"

His hands rose to block her drop-kick but it went straight through his defenses and his entire body as it turned to smoke.

When it cleared she stood in the crater, panting slightly, and turned around to face the avenger as he stood there, as calm as he had always been during a fight. Back then, back when she had loved him, trusted him with everything she had, it was so comforting. Now, it was just plain annoying!

Sakura jumped out of the crater and up to his level. She studied the shinobi in front of her and smiled widely when she noticed the slight trail of blood on his mouth. "Looks like I hurt you, Sasuke-kun," she mocked airily. "What's wrong? You haven't said anything yet. Something wrong, _murderer_?"

There was a twitch; she was really starting to get to him, and they both knew it. "I don't have time to deal with you, Sakura. Why don't you be a good little kunoichi and _run away_." She stiffened and her eyes flashed hurt, encouraging him to continue.

"That is what you were always good at; running away. You think that you can really take me on just because you've learned a few new tricks? If Naruto couldn't even beat me, and you were always behind even him, how can you think you could ever defeat me?" he slowly curved away and started walking, his back to her.

His voice had been cold and serious.

Hers was cracked, loud.

"I've always been good at running away? That's funny Sasuke-kun, because right now, it looks like you're the one that has turned their back to me. You're the one running away!" he stopped. His entire body stood there, still as a tree.

His annoyed voice drifted next to her. "Leave, Sakura. Stop trying to fight me already. You are beneath me."

"**You . . .**

Fists clenched and the kunai she had still not let go of was brought up slowly.

**are . . .**

Teeth grit, she took a step towards his back, another, and once again launched herself at him, slicing at the blue material of his shirt.

**beneath . . .**

He grabbed her wrist and had her on the ground before she even knew what was happening, the kunai she had once held in her hands now in his and pressed against her neck as he used his full body weight to keep her still.

**me . . ."**

She was pinned under him at the verge of death, all it took was one little slice and her life would be over.

Now she was scared. Her life was in his hands and there was nothing she could do about it. Sakura's eyes locked with his and, gradually, she started to feel tired.

"You should have just left and saved me the trouble," he muttered to her, his warm breath helping to urge her to relax.

Slowly her eye lids started to dip against her will. She was exhausted; from the fighting, the pain, him. She just wanted it to stop, to all go away.

As she stared into spinning Sharingan eyes and fell deeper into the oblivion consuming her, the last thing she remembered were sighed, soft spoken words that she hadn't heard in what seemed like more then a life time ago.

". . . Thank you."

She didn't even get a chance to wonder why he said it before she welcomed the darkness and slipped into unconsciousness.

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"So how was your teammate, Sasuke-kun?"

The fourteen year old continued walking as if he hadn't heard anything. " . . . She was fine . . . unfortunately. I helped her with that."

Golden eye's glinted dangerously against pale-white skin. "Well done, Sasuke-kun."

Face passive, the boy replied, "Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

The shattered village that had once been home to both of them lay in ruin behind.

Neither spared it even a single parting glance.

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Birds' chirping had woken her up. Groggily, she lifted herself into a sitting position and looked around, finding herself lying next to a river bed in a grassy open field.

'When did I get here?' she wondered sleepily before the night prior flashed into her mind and she jerked upwards, throwing up what little food was left in her stomach.

Crawling over to the river she kneeled over it and splashed its cool water on her face. Staring at her reflection, the girl flinched at the extremely messy pink hair and dirt-covered face and the slightly swollen left green eye.

Shaking her head, she splashed water on her face one more time before standing up on shaky legs and looking around again before turning her face to the bright blue sky that reminded her so much of a certain blonde's eyes.

"I'm alive. You . . . didn't kill me, Sasuke-kun."

Crying felt so old to her but she did it anyways. Why was she the one always crying?

Honestly, Haruno Sakura didn't know and probably never would.

Just like one other thing.

"Why . . . why would you leave me alive . . .?"

The wind blew by, ruffling her hair and caressing her face, gently carrying her last words across the never-ending sky and into an eternity of unknown.

"Why let me live, Sasuke-kun, and them die?"

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**A/N**: Wow. That was . . . wow. I can not believe I just wrote that. Well, not just, it has actually been sitting on my hard drive for three months half done. Then one day I was listening to a song and I just started writing it again. I hope to no one wants to kill me because everyone in the story has kinda been . . . well, killed. Or at least that's what Sakura thinks. We don't really know for sure now, do we? --cackles evilly-- And just in case anyone asks for a sequel or another chapter, I'm going to remind you all that this is called a one shot for a reason. 'Sides, understar-san said it had a certain, "finality" about it. SO THERE! HAHAHAHA!

Well, that's all folks. Please review and let me know what you thought! Once again I hope you all enjoyed it. Bye-bye.

**...:Isiri:...**


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